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Chapter 18 · The Perfection of Renunciation · 78 verses

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How to study this verse, in six steps
  1. 1Remember who is speaking. Kṛṣṇa is speaking. Take the verse as He directs.
  2. 2Say the verse and its words. Read the Sanskrit, then each word with its meaning.
  3. 3Read the translation as it is. Let the translation say what it says, without adding your own meaning.
  4. 4Read the purport. Hear the verse through the disciplic succession.
  5. 5Bring your own question. Ask: where does this verse meet my life, my trouble, my doubt?
  6. 6Act on it, remembering Kṛṣṇa. Carry one instruction into your work today.
Read the full guide: how to read the Bhagavad-gītā ›
Nature & guṇasChapter 18 · The Perfection of Renunciation
18.2618.28

Bhagavad-gītā As It Is · Text 18.27

Knowledge, action, determination and happiness in the modes

Prakṛti · Material nature

रागी कर्मफलप्रेप्सुर्लुब्धो हिंसात्मकोऽश‍ुचि: ।

हर्षशोकान्वित: कर्ता राजस: परिकीर्तित: ॥ २७ ॥

rāgī karma-phala-prepsur

lubdho hiṁsātmako ’śuciḥ

harṣa-śokānvitaḥ kartā

rājasaḥ parikīrtitaḥ

Translation

The worker who is attached to work and the fruits of work, desiring to enjoy those fruits, and who is greedy, always envious, impure, and moved by joy and sorrow, is said to be in the mode of passion.

Read Śrīla Prabhupāda's purport on Vedabase.io
1

Understand it

What this verse is saying, and where it sits in the story.

3 study points

The Worker in Passion

  1. 1

    A worker in passion is attached to work and its rewards, greedy, envious, impure, and moved by joy and sorrow.

  2. 2

    Prabhupāda explains that such a worker seeks material comfort, not higher elevation, and ignores whether earnings are pure or impure.

  3. 3

    Notice whether attachment to results makes you very happy in success and deeply distressed in failure.

Key points from the purport

Worker in passion

Attached to work and fruits of work, desiring to enjoy those fruits

Who is greedy

Always envious, impure and moved by joy and sorrow

e.g. Too much attached to a certain kind of work or result because too much attached for materialism or hearth and home, wife and children

Has no desire for higher elevation in life

Further reading

The Modes Control All Activities

One’s work according to the five factors mentioned above is dictated by the three modes of material nature

This includes:

One’s knowledge (19-22) o One’s action (23-26)

One’s performance of action (27-28) o One’s understandings (29-32)

One’s determination(33-35) o One’s happiness (36-39)

All activities within the universe are thus controlled by the three modes SAKAMA TO NISKAMA KARMA YOGA

Chapter 18, section III: The Modes Control All Activities
2

Word for word

Learn the Sanskrit words of the verse.

  1. rāgīvery much attached
  2. karma-phalathe fruit of the work
  3. prepsuḥdesiring
  4. lubdhaḥgreedy
  5. hiṁsā-ātmakaḥalways envious
  6. aśuciḥunclean
  7. harṣa-śoka-anvitaḥsubject to joy and sorrow
  8. kartāsuch a worker
  9. rājasaḥin the mode of passion
  10. parikīrtitaḥis declared
3

Key ideas in this verse

The spiritual concepts this verse connects to.

Key ideas: prakṛti, guṇa.

4

Live it

Take one thing from this verse into your day.

Ask yourself

What does BG 18.27 establish in Śrīla Prabhupāda's translation and purport, and how does it connect to nature & guṇas?

Practice

Observe which mode shaped your last decision.

5

Related verses

Keep going: verses that carry this teaching further.

BG 18.19Knowledge, action, determination and happiness in the modesBG 18.20Knowledge, action, determination and happiness in the modesBG 7.14Crossing beyond māyā
Live this todayWorship Kṛṣṇa Through Your WorkA practice from BG 18.46, close to this verse

Study notes are editorial summaries, not the translation. Confirm them in the original text and purport.

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  3. Lead
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